300: Rise of an Empire Movie Review

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King Leonidas is dead, but thankfully there are plenty of other angry Greek badasses who can take his place in sequels. 300: Rise of an Empire picks up where the last one left off eight years ago, only with a different director. In this one, invading King Xerxes the Bald blah blah blah blood guts violence blah blah boobs blah blah sex violence blah blah slow motion.

Yes, plot doesn’t matter much, nor does dialogue, but that’s all good because new director Noam Murro has made a fairly faithful copy of 300, which wasn’t exactly steep on story or mesmerizing writing either. More importantly, 300: Rise of an Empire replicates the intense energy of the original.

300: Rise of the Empire is less original, less creative and a little less interesting than its predecessor; with exception to a few flashbacks, the movie is a fairly straightforward war movie littered with bland political discussions between Greek philosophers and a few too many motivate-the-soldiers speeches. Murro is no Zack Snyder, either; while the opening battle sequence looks incredible, the following sequences are a little lazier in the spectacle department, other than when arrows, swords, spears and hammers are slicing human flesh apart.

But the movie is more than good enough to satisfy fans of the original, of which I am one. It presents nothing new, but Sullivan Stapleton makes for a likeable enough lead and Eva Green plays the seductively lethal villain with ease. There’s plenty of action, the action is fast-paced, entertaining and bloody.

Nothing else really matters.

Except the ending, which is way too abrupt and a bit of a letdown as it desperately sets up a sequel.

But nothing else really matters. 300: Rise of an Empire isn’t as good as the first movie, but it’s still an energetic, entertaining and action-packed affair.